Shadow of Death
by SotF
Summary: Sequal to Ghost of Death and Angel of Death, Xander has left Sunnydale and gone to LA, but his actions have attracted the attention of a group that has a proposition for him.
1. Recruitment

AN: Sorry for everyone who was disturbed by Angel of Death. The people who game with me agreed that it was in character for Azrael to do that kind of thing to someone who had ticked him off. But anyway, now here goes the next part of this insanity. You know, feedback isn't a coin of the realm, it's food for plotbunnies that I want out of my head...but anyway, this one is going to be more than one chapter long. I only have a few people lined up to join Xanders team for this one.

The Sithspawn-Yeah I did, the full reasons will be explained later, but it does have a purpose, and witht he way this plotbunny is growing and multiplying, it'll be found out soon enough. I thought that if Darla could be brought back, well it gave me the idea of Xander taking on all four members of the Scourge of Europe. In other words, more widespread wargames for the ghost.

xXx

Xander smiled as he watched the streets below him, he'd left the city after graduation and Buffy found out about him letting Azrael 'deal' with Angelus.

The armor made him just a ahimmer on the rooftops, the light of the setting sun reminding him of the nuclear warhead he'd dropped on the mayor with a smile, his words still ringing in his ears, "California fried snake anyone."

The phrase still brought out a smile in him and a chuckle from the sadistic side.

The school was in ruins, and in the running battle with the retreating hellsnake, four fifths of the city was in flames and the rest was deserted at the time. The city was rebuilt, the incident was blamed on a fight between two terrorist groups and everything settled down.

The funny thing was that the ghosts memories of terrorist incidents in the Dominion and with Mengsks little empire usually had far more destruction involved and more deaths to boot. But then again, he had caused more than his share of them himself.

Faith was out there somewhere, he'd followed her here. He needed to understand her, she had run when things got strange, someone died and Azrael tried to help, she paniced after Azrael took down a few dozen watchers and nearly every SWAT team in the state. He stayed in Sunnydale only long enough to deal with the Mayor before leaving, he'd survived Highschool, only to flatten it.

The word was spreading, the watchers had sent a second team to deal with this creature that called himself the Angel of Death. That team was sent back with all their non-vitals in very small boxes. Only one of them was left intact to help the others back without them dying from their 'injuries' and other maladies.

But everything left him feeling old, almost as if he had been through more than he could withstand. But his mind was still his own, during the duel between him and the mayor, at the end, something had happened to merge Azrael and Hyena into his consciousness, truely becomming one in mind as they were in body.

He was Alexander Lavelle Harris.

He was the Hyena.

He was Lucas Alleric "Azrael" Vladimir, the Angel of Death.

Three beings made into one.

He leaped off the rooftop, the edge shattering from the force of the jump servo's built into the ankles of the armor.

The gear had been enhansed in several ways through a variety of people he had hired with funds he had taken from the mayor's accounts, he had more weapons than he knew what to do with, although Azrael's seeming obsession with James Bond and Ethan Hunt was something of a laugh at first, well, until he started pulling off things that would have made either super spy wet their pants and run away.

But that was secondary to what was happening, he'd already reconsiled the fact that not all demons were evil, some were friends, Azrael saw no problem with Appearances, as long as they weren't trying to kill him or others, he'd let them be.

The enhansed vision he had gained from that night had allowed him to spot a group of vampires closing in on a trio of people.

His psionic blades extended as he released his cloak and the cloak extended, though he didn't lock it in place as it was designed, but let it flow around and behind him.

The crimson beams shredded the dozen vampires before they realized what was happening and allowed the blades to dissipate as he turned to the three men.

"Mister Harris," one of them said, an older man that seemed to be in his mid to late sixties.

"How do you know that name," Xander asked, his inquisitiveness getting the better of him.

""We work for the government, and well, we know about what you fight, and well, we need your help," the man said calmly, holding out a folder.

The ghost flipped through it, thankful that his grin was hidden beneath the mask, "A group against demons, interesting, but why me?"

"We've had our eye on the Hellmouth for some time, while your actions with Angelus was deemed a bit on the extreme side, your decision to eliminate the threat was judged to be something that we could use."

"Why?"

"We're building a team to fight the darkness, and well, we want you to lead it, your capability with dealing with allies that are turned is what made us decide to ask you to form and then lead the group."

"I'll do it, when do we begin, and as a sign of good faith, so to speak, we found the one you're looking for," the man said handing him a business card, "The adress on the back is where you'll find her, the other is where you need to be in one week to finish this discussion and begin filling out your team."

"Will do," he responded.

"One question, what rank did you hold?"

"Me, none, but Azrael was a Colonel," he answered with a smirk.

"Well, you get that rank for starters, welcome to the club," the man said with a chuckle.

"By the way, who are you?"

"General West," the man said with a smile, "And trust me, demons aren't the wierdest things I've dealt with, though I thought I'd left the wierd to Hammond."


	2. Meetings

AN:Not quite sure how long this one will take, namely it's constructing a special operations team that a ghost would accept that's the hard part. Only got a few down, others will follow, but the world is changing, is it for the better or worse? Chapter 2 of the Ghosts of Death now begins

Artic-Phoenix2-Yes, and it makes sense, West is the General from the Stargate movie, guess who Xanders 2IC will be.

jwolf-First off, the SWAT team situation is somewhat explained here, the watchers went after Faith, Azrael dealt with the Watchers in broad daylight to play a bit with their minds, and even the sunnydale PD has to do something when that kind of thing breaks out. With the mayor, Nukes like those in Starcraft are not that much of a wide dispersal weapon, mainly about a city block, but not much good against a moving target, mainly Xan hunted him down through the city with his other weapons. One reason he didn't eliminate the contact team is because he's curious first, and second he wants to know how they got their info. Trust me, the Initiative won't like it when Xan gets involved back in SunnyD, he's in LA for other reasons. His main reasons for being outed is Buffy freaking out over how he dealt with Angelus, not really why he dealt with him, but the torture kind of messed her up. For his abilities they come from a mix of those in the books and in the Spycraft powered fan sourcebook as well some from the novels. I mainly play the Protoss, Dark Archons make things very fun...Possession is my favorite toy.

xXx

"Sir," the young man said, stiffening unconsciously to General West.

"Relax, your not in the military," the man chuckled, "Yet, anyway."

"Just another year and I meet the minimum age requirements."

"Actually, I have a proposition for you," West said with a smile, "I've been put in charge of forming a new unit dedicated to dealing with threats of a non-normal nature."

"You mean like what the other me goes against," the teen said, eyeing the two flanking soldiers.

"No, something similar in a way," West replied, "If you agree to join the group, you will be given the rank of Major, namely to keep the chain of command working, you will be second in command of the group."

"I'll do it," he said slowly, "So, you telling Jack, or should I?"

"Actually, he's being kept out of the loop, hopefully it prevents the NID from uncovering this new group before its togather, all funding is in place though, you fly out to LA at the end of the week to meet your new CO."

xXx

Xander smiled as he walked into the hotel, he'd left his 'working' gear back at his apartment in a sealed case with a tracker. Especially after the military paid him a vist, he wasn't leaving that gear where it could be 'requisitioned' by anyone he didn't approve of.

He glanced down at the adress on the card and punched the number on the elevator. At dawn he had seen her enter the building so he knew it was accurate information, but he was still ready for the off chance she had slipped off.

The elevator went slowly as his mind flashed back through the memories that were his since Halloween, mostly he remembered the final test that was supposed to let Azrael have the title of Ghost.

Rei was someone that Azrael had known from the time he was young, before his talents as a psionic were uncovered, they had been engaged, but the monsters that ran the training school had grabbed her. His job was to take down the one with a gun to her head before the bastard could pull the trigger.

He pulled the trigger of his weapon in a flash, but the gun jammed, the penetrator round detonated, sending him flying as the man then pulled the trigger, leaving her dead.

His emotions reinforced his gifts and overloaded the dampners implanted in his head, disabling them. He had unleashed his full fury and the fight with the entire base he had been forced into lasted mere minutes, but he had killed them all.

But then his mind flashed back to the present as the elevator chimed and the doors opened and he stepped out, the brighter light of the windows temporarily banishing the darkness within his thoughts.

As he walked down the hall and around the corner to the rooms he sand a little song to himself.

"Shotgun shells, sniper rounds, leeches blown away..."

He paused the jaunty tune as he knocked ont the door and waited for it to open.

As it creaked open he smirked as he remembered when he'd last seen her.

The firefight with the teams the watchers had sent after her had made even the Sunnydale PD, the group that if they were called inept would give inept departments a bad name.

"Hello Faith."


	3. Uncertain Futures

AN:With West starting to build a team, Xander mending fences, and all the problems yet to come, a dark presence is about to add to the problems. A few old enemies are coming to light, and as a side note, the character Azrael is still a work in progress of sorts, I still play him twice a week so his history will be expanded as this goes along, and no, in life I am nothing like Azrael.

Stephen-I figured most people would figure that one out, I wanted to involve him in it without dragging SG-1 into it for a while, plus Azrael and Jon seem to have a lot in common.

PW-I'll explain how the Mayor survived that one later, it will be explained with one of the enemies still to come.

HolyKnight-The SGC doesn't have the cyber security to handle the Ghosts hacking training, they just aren't at the tech level, and with most of that being a function of the suit, well..As for an Ashrak, that may be interesting to have happen, though the Ashrak won't know what hit him.

Destiny's Dragon-Gracias, I will keep it up, Azrael is someone strange to play as and writing his reactions is just as fun.

Blackguard-I am working on it, thanks

The Sithspawn-Maggie won't like it when she finds out West and the President set this up, especially after Xander finds out about them. Jaffa won't be showing up for a while, though like the Ashrak, could be a short and interesting tale, very short for the Jaffa.

Magewind-For the moment, it's just West having a possibly recurring role and Jon fully involved, other characters may arrive to be guest stars in a way. Namely since Jack doesn't know where Mini-Jack went, SG-1 might show up, that would be an interesting meeting if Jack tries to confront Azrael. Still trying to write that without Jack getting shot.

xXx

In Sunnydale, a group was activated under the orders of Senator Kinsey through the NID, but seperate under the command of a Doctor Walsh.

Its base of operations was built quickly, but they had a slight accident that they didn't realize they had, their construction opened a cavern that went deep below the surface of the city, below any of the caves and pathways the hellmouth had around it.

Now, if it had just been a cave, nothing would have come of it, but their was the essence of an ancient demon locked away there, and that essence touched the distortions caused by chaos only a relatively short time before in its perspective. Unconsciously, it followed one of the trails of power back to its source and expanded locking onto one being it matched and began to replicate that being as its new form.

A pulsating cacoon slowly developed from the shadows, a form floating within.

xXx

It had been a hard week, Xander thought, he'd finally gotten Faith to listen to him. He also went through all of his contacts and every ability he could to find out just who the hell this General West was.

It interested him as the computer uplink within his armor easily punched through the security systems and tracked down all the information available, secured connections, but available with the right tools.

The information triggered a part of his brain, memories flooded from his time with the Dark Templar, those memories gave him several interesting ideas with how to build some new toys, if something similar to a Warp Gate was possible, then perhaps he could concider constructing some of Azraels favorite toys, the Hyperion was a possibility, he'd commanded it for a time after Jimmy left to figure out just what it was with him. He now realized just what it was that Marshal James Raynar had felt when Mengsk used the girl he thought of as a sister to her death, a death that was meaningless and worthless.

He knew that before the end, Jimmy and Sarah had been meant for one another, just like Azrael and the girl he loved had been...before a flaw in a weapon cost him her life.

Xander waited patiently at the door of the house he had been given directions to meet General West at, Faith was back at the house he had obtained to store what she referred to as his toys.

He was dressed in something close to what Azrael had worn when off duty after he watched Mengsk burn on Valdin IV. After he had chosen to return to earth, he had finally faced the last of his living demons and nearly killed her.

His memories of the end there were still fuzzy, but he remembered the queen bitch herself ambushing the convoy and he was dragged before her. He learned that her per, Duran, had turned on her and she was offering him a chance to join her.

He remembered her gloating that without the psi dampners in full working order in her head, she was far beyond what any ghost could pull off. Azraels power had completely destroyed his own, and he had learned to control them to an extent that matched those of the Archons and Dark Archons, plus he had other means at his disposal, he'd also been trained by something that made him even more dangerous, he had found the entity that had awakened from the crystal monolith and followed it, he had trained at the hands of the spirits of the Xel'naga themselves.

He unleashed his full power on her minions, the full force turning them into here stains in the wind as his eyes took on an eerie glow.

Both of them unleashed their full power and the planet paid for it, he had realized that it was breaking apart, the conflicting powers ripping and tearing at the planet itself.

Then it ended, Azrael was glad that he didn't have to deal with a mind as dirty as that monster, and he was glad that he didn't have access to his full mental arsonal. He was relieved that he couldn't get in another mind duel like that and have the same effect as a Death Star, or worse.

The door opened and he stepped in.

xXx

In the offices of Wolfram and Hart, a scrabble was going on as a box was placed on the floor with a flash and the stench of smoke from the massive packing crate, four beings were returned to the Earth.


End file.
